Intel White Paper Hot-Socketing & Power-Sequencing Feature & Testing for Intel® FPGA Devices

White Paper

Hot-Socketing & Power-Sequencing Feature & Testing

for Altera Devices

Introduction

Hot socketing and power-sequence-protection are important for high-availability systems and multi-voltage systems. Hot socketing refers to the ability to insert or remove a board into or out of a system during system operation without causing undesirable effects to the host system or the cards themselves. It is often also referred to as hot swapping or hot plug-in. This feature also allows the PLDs to resume normal operation regardless of the power sequence.

A programmable logic device (PLD) capable of hot socketing must meet the following criteria.

The device can be driven before power-up without any damage to the device itself. The device does not drive out before or during power-up. External input signals to the device I/O pins do not power the device’s VCCIO or VCCINT power supplies through internal paths of the device.

Altera has a robust design and full support for hot socketing and power sequencing in its advanced FPGA and CPLD devices. This white paper defines the hot socketing feature for FPGA and CPLD devices, discusses their implementations in silicon, and provides characterization work that demonstrates that Altera devices are hot socketable.

This document contains the following sections:

Altera Hot-Socketing and Power-Sequencing Feature Overview Hot-Socketing and Power-Sequencing Feature in FPGA Devices Hot-Socketing and Power-Sequencing Feature in CPLD Devices Hot Socketing and Power-Sequencing Testing for Altera FPGA Devices Hot Socketing and Power-Sequencing Testing for Altera CPLD Devices Conclusion Altera Hot-Socketing & Power-Sequencing Feature Overview

The hot-socketing and power-sequencing feature for Altera FPGA and CPLD devices offers:

No-hassle, drop-in solution No external components or board manipulation are necessary to support hot socketing Supported for any power-up sequence I/O buffers that are non-intrusive to system buses during hot insertion

Hot-Socketing & Power-Sequencing Feature in FPGA Devices

Altera is the only FPGA vendor offering hot-socketing and power-sequencing support for FPGAs manufactured on a 0.13-μm process. The Stratix, Stratix GX, and Cyclone FPGA families are all based on the 0.13-μm process and each family is designed and has been tested to support hot socketing. Altera will also support the hot socketing feature on devices manufactured on the 90-nm process technology.

May 2006, ver. 1.1 1

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